European Stocks Close Higher As Markets Await Central Banks Rate Decisions

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed broadly higher on Tuesday with investors largely making cautious moves, digesting mixed earnings updates and economic data, and looking ahead to the monetary policy announcements from the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve.

The focus was also on the U.S. Presidential election in which former President Donald Trump is facing Kamala Harris.

The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.06%. Germany's DAX climbed 0.57% and France's CAC 40 gained 0.48%, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 closed down 0.14%. Switzerland's SMI ended down 0.26%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia and Spain ended higher.

Denmark, Poland, Portugal and Turkiye closed weak, while Iceland and Sweden ended flat.

In the UK market, Melrose Industries rallied about 5.2%. 3i Group climbed 4.3%. Associated British Foods gained nearly 4% as the Primark owner reported strong financial results for the year ending 14 September 2024, driven by revenues growth in its retail and foods businesses.

BT Group, United Utilities, Severn Trent, Rentokil Initial, BAE Systems, Ashtead Group, Pearson, Diploma and EasyJet gained 2 to 4%.

Weir Group, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Next, Intertek Group, Anglo American Plc, Standard Chartered, Beazley and Compass Group also ended notably higher.

Schrodders shares plunged nearly 14% after the company reported £2.3 billion ($3 billion) of quarterly outflows and warned of more to come.

AstraZeneca dropped 8.4%. Hikma Pharmaceuticals closed nearly 2% down, while GSK, Land Securities, Endeavour Mining, Entain, JD Sports Fashion and Croda International lost 1 to 1.6%.

Fashion retailer ASOS slumped 6.5% after reporting a widened pretax loss for fiscal 2024.

In the German market, HeidelbergCement and Rheinmetall climbed about 2.6% and 2.4%, respectively. MTU Aero Engines, Beiersdorf, Henkel, Siemens, Fresenius, Munich RE, Deutsche Boerse, Commerzbank and Daimler Truck Holding gained 1 to 1.8%.

Fresenius Medical Care moved notably higher as Q3 profit beat market views.

Deutsche Post ended down 4.2%. BASF, Zalando and Continental closed lower by about 2.2%, 2% and 1.3%, respectively.

In the French market, Bouygues gained more than 3% as nine-month core earnings came in slightly above expectations. Safran, Schneider Electric, Publicis Groupe and Thales gained 2 to 3.1%.

Teleperformance, STMicroElectronics, Airbus Group, Saint-Gobain, Veolia, ArcelorMittal, Accor and Legrand advanced 1 to 1.8%.

Vivendi, Societe Generale, Capgemini, Kering, Pernod Ricard and Sanofi lost 1 to 1.7%.

Shares of Swiss staffing company Adecco dropped nearly 6% after Q3 result missed consensus estimate.

On the economic front, France's industrial production decreased more than expected in September on widespread declines across all sectors, data from the statistical office INSEE revealed.

Industrial production fell 0.9% on month in September, in contrast to the 1.1% increase in August. This was the first fall in four months. Economists had forecast a monthly drop of 0.5%.

Within overall output, manufacturing output slid 0.8%, partially offsetting the 1.4% increase seen in the preceding period. The 0.8% fall largely reflects 0.9% drop in machinery and equipment goods and 1.8% decline in 'other manufacturing'.

The UK service sector grew at the slowest pace since November last year as heightened uncertainty and concerns about the domestic economic outlook damped new work, the S&P Global purchasing managers' survey showed. The final services Purchasing Managers' Index registered 52.0 in October, down from 52.4 in September. The reading was above the initial estimate of 51.8.